Human-Centered Approach to Implementing AI
Part of Twin Cities Startup Week 2026, September 14–18.
Successfully implementing AI is as much about the people and systems around the technology as the technology itself. This panel will look at how organizations can introduce AI in ways that reflect how people actually work, where human judgment and connection still matter, and what needs to happen for new tools to become part of everyday operations rather than another pilot that gets abandoned.
The conversation will cover understanding the business before automating it, preparing people for changes to their roles and workflows, measuring whether AI is actually being adopted, and deciding where human involvement should remain central. Speakers will bring perspectives from organizational AI implementation, change management, community-centered work, and human-in-the-loop product design.
Speakers & Perspectives:
Emily Balfour - AI that understands the business: Emily will focus on starting with the company's existing work, knowledge, and processes before deciding where AI belongs, and why AI implementations often fail when the technology is introduced without enough understanding of the business it is meant to support.
Aliza Bach - Knowing where humans still matter: Aliza will bring a community-centered perspective to the conversation, particularly around situations where trust, lived experience, relationships, and person-to-person support shouldn't simply be replaced by technology.
Sonya Hogie - Change management and adoption: Sonya will focus on what it takes for people to actually adopt AI-enabled ways of working, including change readiness, resistance, role and process changes, training, and measuring adoption through behavior and value rather than simply whether a tool was deployed.
Akshat Koirala - Human-in-the-loop design: Akshat will bring the perspective of designing AI systems that intentionally keep people involved, particularly from his work exploring how technology can support learning without removing the role of educators, judgment, and human interaction.
Getting here on Thursday. Parking, Basecamp, lunch, and the rest of the day: tcstartupweek.com/thursday